‘Potato Project’ ministry new to area

In the past two months 18-wheeler trucks full of potatoes and trailers full of cartons of soup, nutritious drinks, beans, rice, flour, formula and other food items have been delivered to feeding ministries across South Texas. Those include the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley and the South Texas Food Bank in Laredo.
In fact, in the last two months, more than 45,000 pounds of food and 180,000 pounds of potatoes have been given. Volunteers from a young adult Sunday school class of First UMC, McAllen, other McAllen area churches, Methodist churches in Mexico and a mission team from Louisiana came to help unload these loose potatoes and other food items. This ministry is known as the Society of St. Andrew, a national organization, now at work in South Texas. This ministry is being coordinated by Jack Radde of First UMC, McAllen.
Tractor-trailer loads of potatoes and other produce are often rejected because of slight imperfections in size, shape or sugar content as well as surface blemishes. Usually, these rejected loads end up at local landfills. Through the Potato Project, SOSA is able to redirect these loads of fresh, nutritious produce to soup kitchens, food pantries, low-income housing areas, local churches and other hunger agencies for distribution to the poor. Another project of SOSA is the Gleaning Network. It coordinates volunteers, growers and distribution agencies to salvage food for the needy.
SOSA was formed in 1979 and has grown into a national ecumenical, nonprofit, charitable organization dedicated to leading others into lives of Christian community and service. The name of this ministry comes from the disciple Andrew, who was always introducing others to our Lord. Most notably, Andrew played a crucial role in the feeding of the 5,000 when he brought the boy with five barley loaves and two small fish to Jesus, who multiplied the food to feed the crowd.
Since its founding, SOSA has worked to fulfill the mandate of the gospel in our lives by striving to adhere to the words of 1 John 3:18: “Let us love not only in words but in deed and in truth.”